Sydney dirt gods, I’d appreciate your thoughts on where to ride given 12 or so hours to do whatever I like this Sunday morning.
Current plan is to leave Canberra at 6, hit Wingello and Penrose, grab some lunch, then maybe Mt Annan, get home by 5 or 6pm.
I’m not sure about heading to Manly Dam and the new trails due to traffic/hating cities, but is there anything else out west or south that I should be hitting instead of the three outlined in the Current plan? Looking at NSWMTB trail descriptions its all sounding kind of sad and small (which I find hard to believe) but I want to get out of Canberra and ride some new trails.
If only Flows Trail database showed a map instead of a long list you’d be able to pinpoint possible places to ride on the way through.
Only ride I can recommend was a couple of years ago around Goulburn. At Christmas in 2012 I did the loop through the bush near the cemetery on Gorman Rd, around Governors Hill. There’s a relevant strava llink here that’s not mine as I wasn’t doing strava back then. Follow Troy on Strava to see this activity. Join for free. There’s also the Mt Grey lap on the otherside of Sydney Rd, Mt grey full lap | Strava Ride Segment in Goulburn, NSW, Australia - just be careful of the broken glass at the entry on Speedway Rd, many bogans, much broken glass.
Hey, thanks Geoff! goulburn looks good, will see what else is around there with the segment explorer on strava.
Ezy, its not too late man! space for one more in the car, I reckon, and could even chuck another rack on the roof to make it all easier/faster.
yeah, but ridden it. dont wanna say “i done that”… but i am super keen for something i haven’t seen, y’know? even if goulburn is 75% as good as jindy, I’ll happily take it.
If you do come into town I can tell you that the new Bantry Bay trails are really good - and linked with Manly Dam make up about 23kms of single trail.
Yeah, i think it could be pretty awesome! 50k loop at wingello for breaky, 20k of goulburn for lunch, and maybe a little spin at jerra before heading home?
We’d need two cars for all of us.
FWIW I tried and struggled to find a decent coffee in Goulburn over the Christmas break.
There is a small place on Sowerby Street which leads up to McDonalds, on the right hand side at the end of the metal building, see fenced area with white out windows on an old Google Street view here: Google Maps that was supposed to do good things but they were closed over the break so I sucked it up and bought some ground beans and made Aeropress coffee instead.
Well, that was a good day! left Canberra at 6:30 with 4 bikes strapped to car, coffee, egg n bacon roll and choc croissant at Goulburn bakery, on the trail at Wingello at 8:30 or so. Just did the red loop, 23km mixed singletrack and fireroad. Great course for racing, I’d say, heaps of chances to overtake. Some absolute stand out sections, but overall, there must be a heap of scope for more trail there, would (obviously) like to see a little less fireroad and more singletrack. Heading into the last 3km or so I got what must’ve been the 5th or 6th stick into my back wheel, but it didnt shake itself loose, instead taking out two spokes, ripping of the bottom part of the cage on my RD… bah! straightened it enough to let the wheel go through the frame, twisted the half spokes around some remaining ones and gingerly got back to the car. the last couple of km would be real good with a bike in good order!
Drove back to goulburn, into green grocer to see if I could get a new RD and spokes happening, neither was in stock… So had pizzas and coffees then up onto Governor hill, which someone said was the MTB national champs course in 83 or 84? We just rode the north west side of the main road, nice loop in there, nice n loose, kind of similar to Jerrabombera. The back wheel held up, i was back to riding my SS gear and not changing, all good!
Six pack for the other dudes ont he way home, 3:30pm we were all back and looking after kids and repaying the debt. Bloody good day, will be doing again and again instead of racing I reckon.
Shit luck with the rear end, but good to hear you hit up Governors Hill. Did not know it was the Nats Champ Course - wouldn’t have thought it was hard enough for that, but then again, early 80’s…
I hope your bike is better than ever upon return!